talkleft reports that there was a big rally in support of mike hawash, the intell employee who has been detained (disappeared?) up in oregon. he is charged in the oregon terror case.

kos has some good graphs illustrating presidential polls (ie, awol can't even get his numbers as high as his daddy after the first gulf war).

devra, over at the bluestreak, tells us that john kerry's wife (previously a repub) has switched parties (presumably to endorse her hubby's bid for president). devra also kindly and correctly attributes the phrase "blogtopia" to us.

antidotal muses on ashleigh banfield getting heat for criticizsing the media's handling of the war.

jenny at little red cookbook links us to an article that dares to hope that "the web will win the culture wars for the left."

the london-based al-quds al-arabi daily frontpaged wednesday, april 30, what it described as a letter handwritten by ousted iraqi president saddam hussein, urging his people to rise against the anglo-american occupation forces.

the letter was dated april 28, the 66th birthday of saddam whose whereabouts remain a mystery, the paper chief editor abdul bari atwan told agence france-presse (afp) over the phone from london.

not that any of us expected any different, but so far there is no proof of powell's arms claims, us empty-handed in iraw search for wmd, according to the sfchronicle.

powell's speech on feb. 5 signaled the end of the bush administration's support of continued u.n. weapons inspections and set the stage for military action by providing information that he said showed iraq was in continued violation of security council resolutions that required it to disarm.

he told the council he was sharing "what the united states knows about iraq's weapons of mass destruction as well as iraq's involvement in terrorism."

in the 38 days since u.s. and british troops invaded iraq, however, military forces have yet to produce any of the weaponry or chemical or biological agents powell described, nor have they produced iraqi scientists with evidence about them, officials said.

they also have not turned up anything to support powell's claim to the security council that "nearly two dozen" al qaeda terrorists lived in and operated from baghdad.

we found that link thanks to the smirking chimp, one of whose readers pointed us to abcnews, who says white house officials privately admit that 9/11 was the main reason for war.

officials inside government and advisers outside told abcnews the administration emphasized the danger of saddam's weapons to gain the legal justification for war from the united nations and to stress the danger at home to americans.

"we were not lying," said one official. "but it was just a matter of emphasis."

Sunday, April 27, 2003

american soldiers guarding an arms dump in baghdad stripped four suspected iraqi thieves, burnt their clothes and forced them on to the streets naked, witnesses said early this morning.

a muslim member of the delta squadron 10 engineer corps is alleged to have written “ali baba. haram” in arabic across the men’s chests before they were evicted at gunpoint from an amusement park in the city.

Saturday, April 26, 2003

a whole lott of nothing

atrios directed us back to tim lambert's exquisite living tome on john lott's adventures with the truth. and it looks like, no matter how you slice it, john lott's thesis "more guns, less crime" is just "more gristle, less meat."

apparently, when all is said and done, lott made numerous coding (we assume mathematical) errors in his data...the question remains as to whether the errors were honest mistakes or an attempt to make the numbers fit the conclusion, instead of the usual scientific way of looking at the data and then reaching a conclusion.

this was pointed out by ian ayers and john donahue of standford (full disclosure...this paper is 120 pages long...we are taking tim's word on it. if anyone wants to read it and dispute tim, feel free to use our comments section).

apparently, after much back and forth in the vein of "did not did so did not did so" and "i'm rubber and you're glue," lott eventually asked for his name to be removed from one of the "i know you are but what am i" responses circulating in the intellectual ether. apparently, yes, the data is bad, and what do you know, it actually turns out that, according to the figures and the history, more guns = more crime.

tendentious gives us an update on the reporter who was fired from the sfchron after participating in the anti-war demonstrations...apparently it wasn't so much that he was anti-war, but that he was pro-palestine.

also, we were pretty sure, but then we found out for a fact...nezumi is firmly on the left. great! we love those little mouse icons!

and david of let's try that again (a fine australian blog) thinks we should have made more of this story:

the home of australian icon skippy is set to be sold for $500,000 after the park was closed down following claims of animal cruelty.

the troubled wildlife sanctuary waratah park, in sydney's ku-ring-gai national park, is to be sold to earth sanctuaries ltd.

earth sanctuaries said it had been selected as the preferred purchaser of the assets of waratah park pty ltd, subject to relevant approvals. it said the $500,000 purchase price would be funded from earth sanctuaries' cash reserves.

waratah park is best known as the setting for the famous 1960s television series skippy the bush kangaroo.

we had seen that article, but to be honest, it broke our hearts too much to bring it up.

folks, jenny at the little red cookbook wants us to know (mainly 'cuz we've been bugging her about it) that her blog now has a comments feature! go! leave a comment! (keep it nice, though).

and spadehammer at hammerdown is aghast (but not particularly surprised) that awol's administration admits that there really weren't wmd's over there...it's not that they were lying, it was "just a matter of emphasis." yeah, right. emphasize this, pal!

ps, we gotta give a shout out to free pie for sending all that traffic our way...kim is away from the computer till monday, but there's plenty of good stuff up on her site now, so go read!

in the weeks after [natalie] maines' comments, sales of the [dixie] chicks' latest album, home, fell out of the top spot on the country charts - before bouncing right back into the no. 1 position last week.

after his outburst at the oscars last month ("shame on you, mr. bush!"), michael moore saw his book stupid white men return to the top of the new york times bestseller list. two days after the oscars, he reported on his web site that his documentary bowling for columbine had received more video orders on amazon.com than the oscar winner for best picture, chicago.

even [actor tim] robbins, who frets about "a climate of fear" for lesser-known actors, can't really complain. "i'm ok," he says in an interview. "i just finished two films," including one with clint eastwood. "i don't believe there's fallout."

a san francisco chronicle reporter who was arrested while participating in an anti-war demonstration last month said he has been fired for falsifying his timesheet. henry norr, who covered technology and wrote a weekly column for the chronicle, said he was fired on monday.

norr was suspended without pay after his arrest. the day before the march 20 demonstration, norr said he sent an e-mail to his supervisor that said he planned to participate and expected to be arrested. norr said he took sick leave for the day of work missed, which the chronicle determined was a falsification.

santorum's record closely matches that of other far-right ideologues. alabama attorney general william pryor -- who is one of president bush's troubling federal appeals court nominees…equated the right of gay americans to engage in consensual sex within their own homes to "activities like prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia...."

listening to the self-righteous wing, you'd expect that the dixie chicks are crawling back with their tails between their legs, sorry for being such bad little americans and dissing awol. not so, says cnn.

true, natalie maines is sorry for the wording of her london gaffe where she said she was embarrassed that awol is from texas...but, "am i sorry that i asked questions and that i just don't follow? no."

the article, which talks about the chicks' upcoming interview with diane sawyer, goes on:

maines and the trio's other members -- sisters emily robison and martie maguire -- also tell sawyer the fallout was too harsh for the offense and they've always supported u.s. troops, even though they questioned the war.

"it's the people who have gone overboard and done such irrational things that take you back to the days of book burning. that is a concern for me," maguire said.
"we know some of our fans were shocked and ... upset. i totally understand it. my problem is, when does it cross the line? when is trashing emily's property ok? when is writing a threatening letter ok?"

robison added that the band was dealing with "bigger issues" than the loss of record sales. "i'm concerned about my safety. i'm concerned about my safety for my family," she said. "when you're getting death threats ... at our concerts this year, we have to have metal detectors, and to me that's just crazy. but we have to take precautions because this thing has gotten so out of control."

plus, the chicks git naked! and hey, while you're there at cnn, go freep the beard! (left hand side bar).

hey kids, our scientist bud dave appell has a great new look for his blog quark soup, so please check it out. among other fine topics, dave delves into why he thinks the term "sars" is misleading and inappropriate.

q why won't you answer the question about whether or not -- he said there are going to be consequences --

mr. fleischer: david, there are other qualified reporters in here, too, who can follow-up.

q i didn't say they were not qualified, ari. i'm saying you're running it like it's homeroom, like we can't follow-up when you're refusing to answer a question that's been posed twice to you, directly. the secretary of state said that there would be consequences. why won't you say what they might be?

mr. fleischer: greg.

q do you want to elaborate on what those consequences would be?

mr. fleischer: i addressed it earlier. you heard what i said about consequences.

q you didn't address it, which is the point. but you can't tolerate that kind of dissent.

whoa! we bet that guy gets sent to the back of the room with helen thomas from now on!

the horse has an action alert for the latest candy crowley fiasco (she likened the democratic candidates to the "iraq's most wanted" playing cards deck). there's plenty of links to send emails to lou dobbs' sponsors to let them know you don't like it when a national news organization equates the leaders of one party to the leaders of the enemy country we recently fought. (scroll down to about the middle of the page).

what better place to learn about the rapid mutation of the sars virus than db's medical rants?

speaking of school, ever wonder what made the difference between that "a minus" you wanted and the "b plus" you got on a paper? eric tam at antidotal explores his thoughts, as one who doles out the grades.

jeanne d'arc of body and soul has a moving tribute to the recently departed nina simone.

devra (of blue streak) is on a semi-hiatus...turns out she has a life, and has to actually live it! imagine that!

talkleft tells us that city of santa cruz, california, has filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government over medical marijuana! good luck, santa cruz! dynamite roller coaster on their boardwalk, if this suit is victorious, let's all take some medicine and go for a ride!

over on avedon's other weblog, dr. carol links us to a washpost article that tells us the awol administration was underprepared [ed. note: duh!] for the strength of the shi'ite organization in iraq (and she got the link from ampersand, another fine friend of this blog!)

eric alterman has plenty of links proving that the administration wasn't ready for the "peace" in iraq after our little war...plus some great thoughts about how the self-righteous wing is whining about journalists being "too" educated.

liberaloasis has a great explanation of why we didn't get too excited over gephardt's new health care plan.

food for thought has an excellent email dialogue with jan mickelson, who is is against the "gay agenda" in our schools.

viewers avoided susan sarandon's tv movie about the woman with cancer in antartica this last weekend, says e! online news.

sarandon's cbs tv movie ice bound was slaughtered by practically everything last night, including abc's easter sunday four-hour broadcast of cecil b. demille's the ten commandments, starring charlton heston (chalk one up for the gun-toting right)...the real-life story of stranded cancer survivor dr. jerri nielsen, placed last in overnight ratings with an average 8.9 million viewers and lost close to 40 percent of audience levels from the eye network's ratings last sunday.

we must concur with e!'s conclusion however...that is, it's hard to draw a conclusion from this whole thing:

of course, there's no way to tell if the ratings crash stems from anti-sarandon sentiment or the telepic's sobering subject of a doctor suffering from breast cancer who must perform her own biopsy--rescuers had to wait four months before approaching the forbidding south pole surroundings to bring her back to civilization.

personally, though we have met ms. sarandon and love her work, both acting and cause-related, we watched moses ourselves. we always love demille's camp classic, it's the best part of easter for us. several reasons come to mind:

1. it's john derek's greatest role
2. anne baxter was a babe
3. it's the one film where vincent price is overshadowed as a bad guy (nobody can touch yul brenner)
4. say what you will about his politics, heston was born to play moses
5. edward g. robinson: "nyah! where's your god now, moses? nyah!"

so, if it's a choice between going to camp de mille another year, or watching susan sarandon slice open her own breast, it's no contest!

oliver at the liquid list sends us this heads up: awol may not get on the alabama's ballot in time for the next presidential election, says cnn.

the problem is that the republican national convention is being held later than usual to avoid conflict with the olympics, and the gop won't choose a candidate until september 2 -- two days after alabama's august 31 deadline to certify presidential contenders.

republicans are asking the democrat-controlled legislature to change the law and extend the deadline until september 5.

personally, we don't think awol will have any problem, as it is projected that he will spend more money ($200 million) than any candidate in history for this next campaign.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

blogshares sucks!

you heard us. blogshares sucks! we registered, and have yet to receive our confirming email, in spite of clicking the "if you have not received your confirming email" button twice.

not only that, when we tried to "claim" our blog (supposedly, you get 5000 shares of your own blog when you register) the site told us there was no such blog, even though it's listed and indexed (but not for trading, yet, because we haven't "claimed" it, but we can't "claim" it, because it says it's not listed).

not only that, because we have no confirmation email, we can't complete the registration process, so we can't join any of the forums or message boards to ask questions about how to fix these problems.

and we even sent an email to the head blogshare, asking about it. and what did we get back? nothing. nada. zip. zero. goose egg. null set. void. the middle of the donut.

we are angry. and we realize we are spending way too much time and effort on blogging to get upset about not being able to trade imaginary stock from our blog, but, gee whiz, the stock has really gone up in the last few weeks! we're frickin' on fire here! if only we could get a piece of our own action!

bruce springsteen went on the record supporting the dixie chicks' right to have an opinion, according to chartattack.com. in a message on his website, the boss says,

for them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-american. the pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about — namely freedom. right now, we are supposedly fighting to create free speech in iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home. i don't know what happens next, but i do want to add my voice to those who think that the dixie chicks are getting a raw deal, and an un-american one to boot. i send them my support.

talkleft has a name for it: radio radial right radio. (we've got a whole other name for it).

calpundit muses on man-on-dog sex, and why rick santorum might or might not have been misquoted.

instapundit reports on matt welch's analysis of the bush/saudi connection.

avedon carol keeps on blogging even as she recovers from her surgery. today the good doctor links us to a kentucky editorial which laments the irony that cable and the internet has "clobbered diversity" instead of expanding it.

who knew we were joanne woodward's personal friend? not us. but we got this important email from her concerning global warming, and thought we'd share it with you:

dear friend:

this earth day, please join with me and my husband paul newman to help secure the health of our planet for future generations: add your name to environmental defense's petition on global warming and join one million citizen co-sponsors of the mccain-lieberman climate stewardship act to halt global warming.

a reader, responding to an earlier post we had about the "backlash" against the dixie chicks (for telling the truth), wrote in our comments section:

i don't suppose that it's possible that all of these radio stations and dj's were just practicing their own right to disagree and start their own protest, were they? i think that conspiracy theories about ties with the bush white house are a little bit of a stretch.

but as doug thompson reports for capitol hill blue, the whole “spontaneous” uproar was apparently generated by the republican party, which sent out thousands of e-mails instructing the party faithful to complain to their local country radio stations. national gop staffers themselves hit the phone lines, demanding stations remove the group’s music from playlists.

jennifer palmieri, press secretary for edwards' presidential campaign, said the campaign played no role in the arrests or dismissals.

thank goodness for small favors. meanwhile, anti-war protesters are tying up traffic in sunnyvale in the bay area demonstrating outside of lockheed martin.

organizers say protesters also are starting a massive ``die-in'' event by lying down on nearby streets to protest lockheed martin's contract with the u.s. government to make weapons for the u.s. military.

sunnyvale police, in riot gear, are vowing not to let protesters block mathilda avenue or other heavily traveled streets in the area. a police spokesman says that protesters will be arrested if laws are violated.

Monday, April 21, 2003

raleigh -- eight peace activists arrested for trespassing in the raleigh offices of north carolina senator john edwards go to court monday. the eight were protesting edwards' support for the war on iraq and demanded to talk to him, but the senator wasn't in when they arrived at his office in february.

you employees need to take a pay cut...pass me that caviar on your way out, would you?

american airlines, facing bankruptcy, had convinced its employees to take massive pay cuts. uh, but not all its employees. the execs were going to get huge bonuses if they stayed on with the troubled airline. only, they didn't tell the employees about it until after the vote on pay cuts.

ok, ok, the airline then promised to forego the bonuses for the execs. uh, but not all the bonuses. the big pension pay-outs to the execs are not going to be rescinded. and several of the unions are demanding a re-vote on the pay cut concessions for their members.

some experts in labor law said the union could have valid cause for conducting a new election because the company did not disclose bonuses and payments to a pension trust for top executives while it negotiated with unions for pay and benefit cuts.

the bonuses were rescinded, but the company won't try to recover the undisclosed amount it paid to fund the pensions for 45 top executives. a spokesman for the flight attendants union said members were just as upset monday as they were when they learned of the executive perks late last week

to food for thought and the art deadlines list (we're wondering why we're on this page, not that we're complaining...but it's an interesting compiling of upcoming deadlines for grants, contests and scholarships in artistic endeavors...go check it out!)

but things are still rough for anybody who dares speak out against awol and his cowboy politics. andrew gumbel, (any relation to barney?) writing in the uk independent, says,

beyond the film world, powerful radio station chains with strong political ties to the bush white house have been orchestrating boycotts and hate campaigns against several anti-war performers…the venom behind these campaigns is disturbing enough but there is a second strand to the story. and that is that hollywood might not be such a liberal place after all.

as we live here, we can attest to the fact that it actually is, but we're just not allowed to say it out loud.

Sunday, April 20, 2003

but, mr blair, where are they? a month has passed since american and british troops entered iraq, more than a week since the fall of baghdad. but thus far not even a sniff. not a drum of vx or mustard gas, not a phial of botulin or anthrax, not a shred of evidence that iraq was assembling a nuclear weapons programme.

but that wasn't what they told us. remember colin powell at the security council two months ago (though today it seems another age on another planet): the charts, the grainy intelligence satellite pictures, the crackly tapes of the intercepted phone conversations among iraqi officials? how plausible it all sounded, especially when propounded by the most plausible figure in the bush ad- ministration. [ed. note: that's damning with faint praise!]

and the paper calls for a parlimentary investigation if no wmd turn up...the government investigating the reasons for the war? something you'll never find in this country

is big brother watching the books you buy or the videos you rent? that question cannot be answered, under the usa patriot act.

the law, passed before the dust from sept. 11 settled, lets government agents seek court orders to seize records "for an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities."

critics have sounded a warning because such court orders cannot be challenged. businesses are barred from telling anyone if they get one. not even congress can get an answer from the justice department on how many people are being monitored.

so, basically, you don't even have the right to ask if what you read is being monitored, because answering that question could put the country in danger.

tenditious links us to an article from the guardian telling about the growing concern by the labour party that nobody has yet to turn up any weapons of mass destruction...thereby making mr. blair and awol's little war illegal:

tony blair is facing the threat of a fresh rebellion from labour backbenchers who are growing increasingly alarmed that the failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in iraq will confirm that the war was illegal.

by popular demand (ok, madkane and the demveteran), here are the lyrics to the day the statue died:

did you write the patriot act,
and do you have faith in un’s pact?
if dick cheney tells you “no.”
do you believe in awol bush,
and should we save some arab tush,
and can you teach me how to snub nato?

well i know destruction could be mass
unless we kick iraqi ass,
we bombed them in basra.
i dig that shock and awe!
we left poor mosul in a pinch,
but israel thinks we’re a mensch,
while we were saving private lynch
the day the statue died.

i started singing
bye bye you iraqi bad guy
drove my hummer through the summer
but the bummer won’t die
and rummy’s boys drinkin’ whiskey and rye
sayin’ this’ll be the day saddam dies
this’ll be the day saddam dies.

some 50,000 people jammed the streets of al-sadr city, formerly known as saddam city, patrolled by kalashnikov-wielding guards.

hundreds of thousands poured out of mosques and demonstrated against washington’s presence. the sermons around the city offered the first clear reaction among muslim clergy to the three-week war and us occupation.

at the al-hikma mosque sheikh mohammad fartusi said the shia would not accept a brand of democracy “that allows iraqis to say what they want but gives them no say in their destiny.”

“this form of government would be worse than saddam hussein,” he said. he also urged the faithful to follow the hawza in najaf.

on wednesday, another shooting in mosul killed three people and wounded at least 11, including several who said american troops fired at them from rooftops. a marine sergeant near the scene said the americans were responding to fire from another rooftop.

they are killing us and no one's talking about it. we want saddam back," said zahra yassin, whose 17-year-old son was shot in the stomach and wounded. "let the embargo return. at least there was security

at least five anti-war protesters were arrested outside the pentagon on friday when several dozen people tried to block subway entrances at the sprawling defense department headquarters, officials said.

glenn flood, a department spokesman, told reuters that five arrests were made by pentagon police after the group conducted what he and other defense officials called an annual anti-war protest made on good friday, a christian holy day remembering the crucifixion of jesus.

we're lucky it wasn't built in the shape of a triskadekagon or even more people would have been arrested.

talkleft is (according to daily kos) apparently the highest priced blog on blogshares, a fantasy stock market to buy and sell interest in blogs. our own blog is "indexed, but not available for trading," whatever that means, thus reaffirming mrs. skippy's contention that what we do here everyday is pretty darn worthless. but we congratulate our friend talkleft, because she actually does fine work and very keen obeservation. go buy some shares!

addendum: whoops! we meant to say talkleft is the highest price "lefty" blog out there! didn't mean to slight all you righties! because we know the right never slights the left!

dave johnson notes that his post about "countering the right's mighty wurlitzer" (though we don't think republicans have such big organs) on his blog seeing the forest parallels some other blog writings, found specifically on the watch and hullabaloo and worldgonewrong.

a chill wind is blowing in this nation. a message is being sent through the white house and its allies in talk radio and clear channel and cooperstown. if you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.

every day, the air waves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. and the public, like so many relatives and friends that i saw this weekend, sit in mute opposition and fear.

abu dhabi tv aired a tape of what is purported to be saddam hussein greeting cheering crowds in baghdad, taken on what was purported to be april 9 (the day the statue died, and everyone was singing bye bye you iraqi bad guy drove my hummer thru the summer but you still didn't die and rummy's boys drinking whiskey and rye saying someone better make sure he dies...sorry, we were channeling madkane there for a second).

nobody is sure if (a) it really is saddam or (b) when the tape was shot. it does make one wonder though, if saddam's regime is dead, why does it keep popping up more than jason in the friday the 13th films?

tens of thousands of iraqi's are protesting their country's "occupation" by foreign troops in the streets of baghdad today.

the demonstration was peaceful, news agencies reported, but it provided dramatic new evidence that the ouster of saddam hussein's secular government has unleashed pent-up religious sentiment, especially among the country's long-repressed shiite muslim majority. in the absence of strong government, islam often provides the organizing principle, and the civic institutions, of muslim societies.

converging from several mosques, the demonstrators carried banners with such slogans as "no bush, no saddam, yes to islam," and "no to america, no to secular state, yes to islamic state." organizers said the demonstrators included both shiite muslims and sunnis, who represent the majority branch of islam is most muslim countries but a minority in iraq.

boy, that was sure a good idea. invade a country so it can turn muslim. smart thinking, awol!

let's get one thing straight. nobody wakes up and says, "hey, let's make this a fascist country." it comes in teeny tiny increments, too subtle to be noticed, until, suddenly, it's difficult to speak your mind in what you heretofore thought was a free country.

the concentration camps didn't just spring up in germany all of a sudden. fascism comes slowly, inperceptively. that's what makes it so dangerous.

reggie rivers, writing in the denver post, talks about a man who hung an american flag upside down in his bookstore, indicating "distress," a metaphor in his mind for the political scene. he was visited by the police and threatened with arrest unless he took it down.

huh? it's against the law to hang the flag upside down? since when?

well, the aclu got into it and the city agreed the police were wrong. but by then someone had thrown a dead coyote on the bookstore's stoop, and the guy got the message.

shut up! fall in line! do not question! big brother is watching you!

it's not a "free market place of ideas" when someone anonymously, and cowardly, harrasses someone else with dead animal carcasses. that's domestic terrorism.

fleming's case illustrates the difficulty of protesting a war in a nation with such hawkish tendencies. war supporters don't fight back with words, they enlist law-enforcement officers, other government officials and corporations to silence dissent.

if you criticize the bush administration, congress or u.s. foreign policy, you're being unsupportive of the troops and the police may visit you.

if you protest through diplomatic channels - as france, germany and russia have done - you're cowardly and disloyal, and you'll be punished later when contracts are awarded in the rebuilding of iraq.

if you go on iraqi tv and criticize the war, as nbc's peter arnett did, you'll lose your job. if you make disparaging comments about u.s. aggression during a music concert, as the dixie chicks did, you'll be the target of a widespread corporate boycott.

all of this makes defense secretary donald rumsfeld's recent comments extremely interesting. on npr this week, rumsfeld responded to reports that iraqi citizens were protesting the interim government. he said that we shouldn't be surprised or dismayed that people in iraq were protesting. instead, we should celebrate because protests are a sign that they live in a free society.

according to reuters, syria is refusing weapons inspections (here we go again) but is willing to work to rid the entire middle east of wmd's. and this means you, israel! (thanks to antiwar.com for that link!)

asked by reporters in cairo whether syria would allow arms inspections, visiting foreign minister farouq al-shara said: "no...after this initiative, this syrian proposal (at the united nations)...syria won't allow any inspection. it will only participate with its (arab) brothers and all of the states of the world in turning the middle east into an area free of weapons of mass destruction."

hammerdown is looking at how rumsfeld lays another one ("bioweapons may be hard to find"...duh! could it be because there weren't any in the first place?) ps. spadehammer, we could have sworn we put your blog on our blogroll, an oversight we have corrected as of today!

and the better rhetor muses about awol's tendency to only tell us "what we need to know."

good stuff on the horse today, including an analysis of the anti-american rallies in iraq, some anti-petrosky backlash from the "bull durham" cancellation, and an action alert to let unabashed left robert scheer know there are some folks on his side.

eric alterman has some more on the media unable (unwilling?) to report the iraqi demonstrations, also.

the misanthropyst has a great story about an wall street insider trader with an inventive excuse: he's from the future:

federal investigators have arrested an enigmatic wall street trader on insider-trading charges - but he insists he's a time-traveller from the year 2256. andrew carlssin, 44, hasn't convinced investigators though.

like the misanthropyst, we're open to believing his story. it gives us hope for the future (and our own ability to go back to high school and punch out that jerk who gave us a melvin in front of that cute girl). and, don't be too quick to dismiss it out of hand:

in a bid for leniency, carlssin has reportedly offered to divulge "historical facts" such as the whereabouts of osama bin laden and a cure for aids...

officials are quite confident the "time-traveler's" claims are bogus. yet the source admits, "no one can find any record of any andrew carlssin existing anywhere before december 2002."

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

oliver of the liquid list directs us to posts by oliver willis and tapped, reporting that bill o'reilly, while emceeing a dinner event for "best men," a charity for inner city kids, remarked "does anyone know where the best men are? i hope they're not in the parking lot stealing our hubcaps."

"to say that this conservative audience -- dominated undoubtedly by many of mr. o'reilly's biggest fans -- was aghast, is an understatement," one attendee e-mailed us, asking for anonymity. "the well-known republican politicians and their spouses seated at or near my table were appalled."

of course, o'reilly is poo-pooing the whole thing, pointing out that he helped raise lots of money for the poor little colored kids (ok, ok, we made that part up, but, we bet that was what he was thinking!)

liquid list has an action alert for us, including fox phone number and fox and o'reilly email addresses. we suggest everyone who would like this institutionalized racism to come to an end go to that site and participate.

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

(a big big tip of the bush kangaroo hat to everyone who has linked to us, but especially to tom tomorrow, whose frequent linkage in recent days created a record-breaking run from 100,000 to 110,000 in less than two weeks!)

you heard it here first. we must admit our mixed emotions in reporting this. nobody was a bigger fan of kelly's on last year's american idol. we knew she would win, and we wore our little redial button down voting for her so many times.

but after watching her two recent performances on national tv this week, we have to admit it.

she sucks.

not that she's a terrible singer. she's just not anything special.

but isn't that kind of the exact opposite of what the "american idol" should be?

we watched her return to fox tv's semi-professional amateur hour last week (our fav this year is the geeky clay whats his name. mrs. skippy reminds us that frank sinatra looked real geeky as a young man, too. although we won't be surprised if 2 tons of fun rooooooo-ben wins).

kelly was doing some lame dancing number to her new single, "miss independent" (co-written by christina aguilera, whom she seemed to try to emulate with her clumsy attempt at dancing). we attributed her lack of fire, spark, and originality to trying to remember which foot went where when.

but then we saw again last night on leno.

what happened to her voice? her confidence, her control, her big booming here-i-am-world-streisand-can-kiss-my-ass attitude?

she seemed sooooo miscast. lost and alone. she shouldn't be on national tv.

perhaps without the folderol of the contest and simon making remarks and the nail-biting who'll win this week atmosphere, it turns out kelly is just another cute girl who sings.

[ed. note: seriously, put a want ad in the paper for a new headline writer]

cursor.org brings us this story of the toronto star media column's documented evidence that cnn was way behind the bbc in an important "friendly fire" story in iraq, but cnn still accuses the star of "multiple and gross" inacuracies.

too bad the columnist actually taped cnn's coverage. he was able to prove that everything he said in his column was true.

there was no national celebration on paradise square. there was a gathering of a few dozen people orchestrated by the u.s. military in front of the palestine hotel, where the world's press has its baghdad headquarters. like saddam, the statue was brought down by the invading force, not by a popular uprising from within. the "celebration" that followed was contained to the very few people there, and rimmed by american tanks around the square...it was a celebration at gunpoint, however benevolent the arsenal shadowing the celebrants, and it was no more authentic than canned celebrations of iraqis dancing around saddam in those many propaganda films his regime distributed like baath party porn. to compare last week's events on paradise square to the celebrations that involved hundreds of thousands of people dancing on the berlin wall for weeks in 1989 is as ludicrous as comparing the american invasion of grenada in 1983 to the normandy invasion in 1944.

and mr. tristam comes to this conclusion:

one question should be faced head-on. are iraqis better off today, under american occupation, than they were five weeks ago, under saddam's boot? yes. but the more pertinent question is this. are americans -- and the world -- better off today than they were five weeks ago? no. no occupation or benevolent foreign military presence in the middle east has yielded peace in the last 50 years.

us troops opened fire on a crowd hostile to the new pro-us governor in the northern iraqi city of mosul today, killing at least 10 people and injuring as many as 100, witnesses and doctors said.

the incident overshadowed the start of us-brokered talks aimed at sketching out a post-saddam hussein iraq and could ignite anti-us sentiment sparked in protests in baghdad and at the talks in the southern city of nasiriyah...

"there are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 to 12 dead," dr ayad al-ramadhani said at the city hospital.

baghdad - united states forces on tuesday tried to hamper the media from covering a third day of anti-american protests by iraqis outside a hotel housing a us operations base, an afp correspondent said.

about 200 to 300 iraqis gathered outside the palestine hotel to express their rage at what they said was the us failure to restore order after the fall of iraqi president saddam hussein's regime last wednesday.

for the first time, visibly-angered us military officials sought to distance the media from the protest, moving reporters and photographers about 30m from the barbed-wired entrance to the hotel...

the crowd later moved to the nearby square where a statue of saddam was toppled last wednesday[ed note: emphasis ours, irony god's], signalling the end of the regime. as three of the marines' armoured amphibious vehicles passed by, the iraqis chanted: "no, no, usa." [ed. note: see smart-ass remark above]

garofalo: "there's nothing wrong with being a conservative, if you're a legit conservative who believes in fiscal prudence and small government and personal accountability. those are three very legitimate and very honorable traits of the conservative. but this is new-this whole new rightward shift of the country and this whole new conservative movement is not that…they call themselves conservatives but what they are, are very narrow minded people, very mean-spirited borderline sociopathic people, closet racists, closet sexists, closet homophobes, all these people that have just latched on to the conservative party and hijacked it, and they just sort of wrap it in the flag, hide it behind jesus and pretend it's patriotic…and you have the kind of "radio pundits" or celebrity journalist on a network like fox or like mike savage on msnbc that just shouts at you."

rhodes: "well you know what we have is jingoism-"

garofalo:"-jingoism and knee jerk reactionary-"

rhodes:"-parading around as patriotism. people are walking around, like you said, the very unsophisticated non-curious people are saying things to me like "my country right or wrong."

maybe because he doesn't have anything to loose nowadays, but bill clinton seems to be the only democrat actually speaking his mind. thanks to tenditious, we get a transcript of the point/counterpoint from last night's 60 minutes:

there's the old bob dole! you know, i worked for years to get bin laden and almost did, when most of your party could have cared less. and, he's still at large. as for saddam, you're the one who paid him a courtesy call and tried to weaken sanctions on him just before he invaded kuwait, and after he had used chemical weapons on his own people.

oh yeah. that oral sex thing was such an evil evil act. who needs logic in the white house, as long as nobody is actually having sex. right, laura?

with republicans expecting president bush to roll to reelection in 2004, their focus is fast turning to 2008 and whom the gop will run against expected democratic nominee sen. hillary rodham clinton. now, whispers is told that florida gov. jeb bush looks strong. "if jeb is in the mix" for the nomination, says a top gop official, "it's his."

we don't say enough about scrapple face. we don't like his politics, or his point of view. but we love his writing. unless you are a rabid trotskyite who thinks everyone who owns something should be killed, you've got to admit that scrappleface is one funny dude.

irrespective of your feelings about the big dog, we dare you not to laugh at today's headlines on that blog:

police arrested almost 50 anti-iraq war protesters on monday as they attempted to block the entrance to the headquarters of chevrontexaco corp, in san ramon, just east of san francisco, in the latest bay area demonstration against the u.s.-led invasion.

nancy nall, in the fort wayne news-sentinel, observes the irony of fighting a war to bring freedom to one country while simultaneously shutting it down in this one.

every angry claim that president bush ordered an unjust war is matched by one on the other side, suggesting those who speak against it should be muzzled, preferably voluntarily, but perhaps not. one new york post columnist casually mentioned that speaking against the war might be considered giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and that, in some cases, was "punishable by execution. hope springs eternal."

yes, i guess it does. what a hollywood ending that would be, to liberate iraqis to enjoy freedom of speech and adopt the tactics of saddam hussein stateside, mmm?

well, now that we've won the war, the economy will be bouncing back to its pre-bushian heights, right? er, maybe not.

a rebound will be subdued primarily by the economy's structural problems - excess capacity, high consumer debt, weak markets abroad, and lack of confidence on wall street. in fact, economists expect the unemployment rate - one measure of the nation's economic vitality - to remain at 6 percent through the year. "the end of the war [in iraq] will be a stimulus, but not as big as some expect," says ken peng, an economic analyst at citigroup.

our friend matt prescott informs us that it's been one year since he organized the oxford earth summit, and he's graciously provided links to mp3 files of the talks by the various speakers over on earth-info-net. chech them out! and happy anniversary, matt!

london's daily star reported that lopez and affleck have secured a deal and are in talks with american producers. the star quoted a friend of the engaged couple saying they are "overjoyed at the prospect of being in 'casablanca' together."

that makes two of them.

we liked tina fey's comment on satnitelive last night: "this will appeal to all the people who liked the original movie but wished that it was bad."

Saturday, April 12, 2003

the walt disney co. has warned in a filing with federal regulators that a deadly new virus sweeping asia could harm the troubled travel industry and hurt its global theme park business.

in a filing with the securities and exchange commission, disney said concerns over severe acute respiratory syndrome, or sars, "and uncertainty surrounding the transmission of this illness may also contribute to a reluctance to travel. this tends to adversely affect our resort locations and in particular our largest resort location, walt disney world, where our guests tend to travel from farther away."

steve gilliard over on the daily kos has a good analysis of what the end of the coalition's war in iraq could bring: the beginning of a civil war in iraq (we especially like this observation steve made yesterday: "so in less than a month, we turned baghdad from the home of one of the most repressive regimes on the planet, to a land closer to mad max.")

peter cammarano over on stand down directed us to mr. krempasky.com, who decided to peruse all the lefty anti-war blogs on the official vi (victory in iraq) day, and see which, if any, actually mentioned the victory.

full disclosure: we had left a comment on mr. krempasky's post, mentioning that he failed to mention skippy's blog, who actually did report it on april 9th. mr. krempasky wrote back, saying he was sorry he missed it, and would post it soon. we responded that we were more joking than raging at him, but would happily mention his work on our blog.

however, as of this writing, he has still failed to mention in his analysis that our blog was one who did report what he thought was history on the day he thought history was being made.

peter points out that mr. krempasky did this without comment or partisanship. if any problem is to be had with his results, it's that he expected everyone to blog about it on that day. pesonally, many at skippy feel that "vi" day is a bit of an arbitrary misnomer, as there is still fighting going on, saddam was reported to have been killed on day one of the hostilities by many sources anyway, and the looting and rioting seems to add to the general feeling of wartime, as opposed to victory.

therefore, we personally could excuse someone for not repeating the pr line that we won on the 9th of april. cases could be made for victory on days before and after.

also, many bloggers actually have lives, and may not get to the events of the day right away.

in other news, this just in, hindenberg explodes in new jersey, fox news suspects terrorists! oh the huge hannity!

[ed. note: that joke didn't work the first time. fire that gag writer]

we're in the middle of consolodating our blogroll, which means dumping the blogs that not only don't have links to our blog, but didn't even bother to answer our letter discussing it. so you may not be able to link to your favorite blog from ours. that is because we thought we were your favorite blog, and are in a snit about it.

we continue to keep jane galt's asymmetrical information on hand, in the hopes that someday she will add us to her roll. we know, we know, we've been hurt before, and we should just grow up and move on; but jane, you were the very first blog we visited, before we even began our own; doesn't that mean anything to you?

but politics deals in comparatives, not absolutes. and when i compare reagan with his ideological heir currently occupying the white house, i'll take the gipper, hands down. george w. bush is much the meaner president (and man). he is far more factional than reagan was. and he is incomparably more dangerous than reagan or any other president in this nation's history.

and, you were still allowed to make fun of the president back in the 80's...

thanks to michael hanscom of djwudi.com, who put together this exhaustive study of the human rights record of all the countries in the "coalition of the willing." luckily, most of the countries have great to pretty good records in this area. however, countries whose records could improve greatly include afghanistan, albania, azerbaijan, colombia, costa rico, the czech republic....sigh...ok, we're only on the c's, and you get the picture. we don't have the tenacity to get all the way to turkey, uganda and uzbekistan.

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